I had a nocturnal emission on a very cold night when it was difficult to take a bath, so I got up for the Fajr prayer, performed tayammum, and prayed Fajr. Then the time for Dhuhr came, and I forgot about the janabah, performed wudu, and prayed.
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The questioner : I had a nocturnal emission on a very cold night when it was difficult to take a bath, so I got up for the Fajr prayer, performed tayammum, and prayed Fajr. Then the time for Dhuhr came, and I forgot about the janabah, performed wudu, and prayed as the imam. Then the time for Asr came, and I remembered the janabah, so I got up, took a bath, and repeated the Fajr and Dhuhr prayers, but the congregation had dispersed. I hope you will inform me about this action, and about the ruling on the congregational prayer. May Allah reward you. He means: and what is the outcome of the congregational prayer?
The Shaykh : As for your Fajr prayer, which you prayed with tayammum because you could not use water due to the extreme cold: if you had something with which you could heat the water, then your tayammum is not valid, because you could have heated the water, taken a bath with it, and then prayed. But if you did not have anything to heat the water with, and you feared for your safety from the cold, and you performed tayammum, then your Fajr prayer is valid with tayammum, and there is no need to repeat it.
As for the Dhuhr prayer, which you forgot to take a bath for due to the janabah, it is not valid, and it is obligatory for you to repeat it. As for the congregation who prayed behind you, they do not have to repeat it, because they did not know anything about your janabah. And whenever an imam commits a defect in the prayer that the ma'mum does not know about, the ma'mum's prayer is not affected by the defect in the imam's prayer. Even if the imam enters the prayer forgetting his state of ritual impurity, and then remembers during the prayer, the prayer of the ma'mums is not invalidated by that. Rather, in this case, if he remembers that he is not in a state of purity during his prayer, he must leave the prayer. As for the ma'mums, he should say to one of them, "Step forward, so-and-so, and complete the prayer for them." If he does not do that, they may complete it individually, or they may appoint one of them to lead them in completing the prayer. And their prayer is valid in any case.
The questioner : May Allah bless you.
The Shaykh : As for your Fajr prayer, which you prayed with tayammum because you could not use water due to the extreme cold: if you had something with which you could heat the water, then your tayammum is not valid, because you could have heated the water, taken a bath with it, and then prayed. But if you did not have anything to heat the water with, and you feared for your safety from the cold, and you performed tayammum, then your Fajr prayer is valid with tayammum, and there is no need to repeat it.
As for the Dhuhr prayer, which you forgot to take a bath for due to the janabah, it is not valid, and it is obligatory for you to repeat it. As for the congregation who prayed behind you, they do not have to repeat it, because they did not know anything about your janabah. And whenever an imam commits a defect in the prayer that the ma'mum does not know about, the ma'mum's prayer is not affected by the defect in the imam's prayer. Even if the imam enters the prayer forgetting his state of ritual impurity, and then remembers during the prayer, the prayer of the ma'mums is not invalidated by that. Rather, in this case, if he remembers that he is not in a state of purity during his prayer, he must leave the prayer. As for the ma'mums, he should say to one of them, "Step forward, so-and-so, and complete the prayer for them." If he does not do that, they may complete it individually, or they may appoint one of them to lead them in completing the prayer. And their prayer is valid in any case.
The questioner : May Allah bless you.